If I kept it to myself - World YWCA

Young women intervene in a world with AIDS
and management for professionals like nurses,
teachers, police and army personnel. They offer
lunchtime training, support groups for members,
pre and post counselling with HIV testing,
therapy, workshops, home visits, and orphan
support through family counselling. I learnt a lot
while at Connect, and use the skills I learnt on a
daily basis.
I am now a facilitator with the International Video
Fair (IVF), which is an organisation whose aim
is to educate communities on crucial social
development issues through the use of video to
audiences without access to mainstream media.
IVF’s education focus is mainly centred on HIV
and AIDS, teenage sex and pregnancy, nutrition,
gender issues and on women who have taken up
the challenge of changing their lives and those of
the people in communities around them.
There are still a lot of misconceptions about
HIV and AIDS and other issues surrounding it.
I find that people feel free to talk about HIV and
AIDS issues with someone who has experience
with the virus. As an IVF film screening
facilitator, I have observed that the programme
has helped both those who have access to
mainstream media and those who don’t. In
2003, IVF partnered with STEPS to screen a
series of short films about HIV and AIDS across
Zimbabwe. The campaign lasted ten months
with repeat shows in some communities. I
participated as a discussion facilitator, mobiliser,
activist, peer educator, social worker and
actress. For ten months we discussed issues
around HIV and AIDS and I gave my testimony
of living positively with HIV to audiences around
Zimbabwe, reaching an average of 3,500 people
per show with 22 shows per month. Throughout
Zimbabwe I travelled to communities and public
gatherings giving my testimony before and after
video screenings. Many young women or girls
interested in more information would approach
me after the show and I was more than willing
to listen, discuss and provide literature. When
we returned to some communities for repeat
screenings I noticed that the question and
answer session was very different, the level of
questions showed more maturity and signs of
understanding.
As I look back at the shows we did here in
Zimbabwe, I always learnt something new and
this made the ten-month campaign interesting
and very educational. The unique thing between
the audience and me is that we all gained
knowledge both from each other and from the
films. As we moved from place to place we
learned about different cultural and religious
beliefs that contribute to the spread of HIV and
AIDS. Having these discussions made me realise
that there are still some Zimbabweans in denial.
People do not want to accept that HIV really
exists until it comes knocking on their door. Some
even say that people are using it as a way of
making money.
One of the main issues raised is that people find
it difficult to talk about HIV in their households
because of cultural or religious beliefs. The same
situation happened in the audience, especially
with the children; they limited their views because
of adults. I think children had a lot more to say
but they could not open up because of the mixed
audience. As a result of seeing these films and
having these discussions, I believe most people
have accepted that HIV really exists. People do
not want to change their sexual behaviour despite
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